Humor of a Darker Kind: Life of a Moreno in the Philippines

The Philippines is home to a diverse range of cultures and customs found around the world. An archipelago of 7,100 islands within South East Asia, the country is a melting pot of different cultures spanning thousands  of years.  

We have had many visitors in the country from the Malays, Indones and Aetas, as taught to us by our Sibika at Kultura subjects. The Spaniards, Americans and Japanese also made their voyage here for one reason or another. All of them played a role in molding our present culture and way of thinking. One pressing cultural phenomenon we experience today though is our obsession with having fair skin.  

Many Filipinos want to be “white”. So much so that any lad who stayed too long in the beach will hear the inevitable squawking of classmates and friends on how dark they had become. It is not a stretch to say that almost all morenos who grew up in the Philippines at one point in time dreamed the Filipino white dream.

I myself am part of the darker skinned Filipinos. With it come many stereotypes. Every time someone learns that I have German blood, I am more often than not given that stare of disbelief. Though they utter no words, the frequency of this event speaks for itself. “But you are dark,” is the simplest thought that could be put on that stare.

The frequency of this event does not bother me though because apart from that one orange thread of hair growing under my chin, I can’t see any other physical characteristic hinting German roots.

Another common joke of the darker kind is when the sun sets and all your friends act in a manner as if their moreno friends have magically disappeared from the face of the earth and can only see you when you smile with your teeth.

One joy that I and my dark-skinned brethren have though comes when the sun rises.  At that point, our ‘mestizos’, ‘tisoy’, or simply self-proclaimed-non-dark friends cower in fear of the mid-day sun afraid of losing the white that they have worked so hard to obtain. While they cower in the shade or nearest umbrella, we roam basking in the sun’s rays without fear of losing anything.

My beautiful skiiiiinnnn!

It’s funny seeing people running from one shade to another, avoiding the sun as if their life depended on it. what’s even funnier is watching them cringe in horror when someone utters the words “umitim ka”.

Come to think of it though, we have many frustrations with the color  white; a white Christmas and white collar jobs to name a few. I also don’t know that many people who can drink pure black coffee devoid of any creamer but that last statement might just be reading into this a little too much. 

A professor once said that we Filipinos are the only people that live in a tropical country, constantly complaining of the heat. Our frustrations with many things lead us to believe that we are tourists in our hometown.

Despite our cultural upbringing written in our history books, stories of our friends, siblings and society in general,  the answer to this obsession is because to this day, many of us still think in Block and White.

 Optic camouflage in the Philippines